IOT (THE INTERNET OF THINGS)

IoT is a prime and categorical example of how far Artificial Intelligence has come in recent times. Its impact can be seen by the fact that a recent Gartner study predicts that there will be 20 billion IOT Devices by 2020. The Internet of things is a phrase coined to group smart products and services that use data and connect with each other in some way to become or perform...smarter. IoT products have become increasingly popular over the last few years and are driving smart home and indeed smart city possibilities - a series of connected devices reacting to each other and the environment around them.

There is a clear intersection between IoT and AI. IoT is about connecting machines and making use of the data generated from those machines. AI is about simulating intelligent behaviour in machines of all kinds.

AI is most commonly implemented in IoT in the following 3 ways:

Prescriptive analytics - ‘What should we do?’ - Think of your morning brief from Alexa. A connected weather app tells your Alexa that it’s going to rain today, and so in turn, Alexa recommends you take an umbrella.

Predictive analytics - ‘What will happen?’ - Think of an autonomous vehicle. If an incident happens in front of you, your vehicle system can analyse what will happen if they continue on the same path and adjust.

‘Adaptive/continuous’ analytics - ‘How should the system adapt to the latest changes?’ - Think of Nest, the smart thermostat. It learns about your home - for instance how long it takes to warm up and how draughty it is. It considers the weather and adjusts accordingly and can even sense when you’re on holiday and reduce wastage.